Today about half of the group headed off to one of the many theme parks while the rest of us remained at the hotel. Todd had told us that laundries would be scarse on the way up to New York so after a bit of a sleep in I spent the morning doing laundry so that I would have enough clean clothes to last me, such an exciting morning :s.

After lunch, Aids and myself decided that it was time for a haircut so we ordered a cab and headed off to....Walmart!! Is there anything they don't do at the place? We paid an outrageous $15 to get our heads shaved and then headed back to the hotel. I remember it being incredibly hot and humid while we were waiting for the taxi to pick us up.

Kelsie was keen to head out to one of the outlet malls once we got back to the hotel so we headed to the hotel next door and jumped on the shuttle bus

. Adrian and I were cursing when the outlet mall ended up being about 100 metres behind the Walmart that we were at only an hour earlier!! The lack of internet access along the way was getting to me, particularly as I had some rather important uni stuff to organise (i.e. if I couldn't get in contact with them I would risk having my scholarship cut off!!) so I decided to splurge on an EeePC. It was $300 well spent and will serve me well in future travels.

It was a Sunday afternoon so all the stores closed at 5 p.m. Time to head back to the hotel. We caught up with Fi and went exploring in Old Town, a kind-of carnival area next to our hotel. This was to become the night where my fear of heights was destroyed!!! We had seen two rides from our hotel, the Slingshot and the Giant Swing, and decided that we would suck up some courage and tackle them.

The Slingshot was the first ride on the agenda. It is hard to describe so just check out the pictures to know what I am talking about. Before we were fired up into the air I was told by Fi not to swear because her mum would be watching the video. Lets just say that once the trigger was pulled, all manner of profanities came out of my mouth hahaha.

It was an absolute rush as you were fired up into the air, hung there for a second and then fell back to earth, only to be sent back up by the elastic ropes. Troy and Randy rode the ride twice in a row, but Randy paid for it later, having to call it a night because he was feeling too sick.

By this stage we were feeling a bit peckish so we used our free-dinner vouchers in a Chinese restaurant, but the food was rubbish. Sweet-and-sour pork with no sweet-and-sour sauce????????

While the Slingshot was a pretty crazy experience, it was nothing compared to what was in store for us next at the Giant Swing. On the largest swing in the world you are hoisted to 330ft (110m) above the ground, face-down in a harness, and have to pull a cord to set yourself flying. Troy, Fiona and I paid our $40 and stood in line for over an hour (not good for the nerves!!) before we were suited up and ready to go. The idea all along had been for Troy to pull the cord, but he ended up being put between Fi and myself, leaving one of us with the responsibility. Due to her fear of getting to the top and freezing, leaving us hanging 330ft above the ground, Fi volunteered me to do the honours. I was absolutely shitting myself.

Hoisting us to the top of the release point seemed to take an age, not helped by the fact that you were staring down at the ground as it disappeared

. On the way up Fi was convinced that she was coming out of the harness, while I think I nearly ripped Troy's right arm off as I held on for my life!! We finally reached the top and were given the countdown, "3, 2, 1....fly!!". I pulled the cord and we fell face-first to the ground. After about 2 seconds (felt like an age) the cables of the swing picked up the slack and we sailed forward in an arc, just 5 feet above the ground. As we reached the top of the arc the cables slackened again and we experienced another fall. From then on we could enjoy the ride as we sailed back and forth until we came to a standstill, unleashing an almighty 'Whiplash, the Cowboy Monkey' chant as we sailed over the rest of the group. Bloody awesome!! Aids had beers waiting for us as we got off, what a champ!!

We walked around the rest of Old Town and stopped in at a few bar's along the way before calling it a night ahead of a long day at Disneyworld the next day.